Baku's foreign policy: successes achieved and challenges ahead
Steady advancement of national interests

ANALYTICS  29 December 2022 - 10:15

On December 27, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov held a large press conference on the results of 2022. The Foreign Minister touched upon virtually all aspects of our country's foreign policy strategy, highlighted achievements, named existing problems, and outlined mechanisms of their solution. Of course, one of the main priorities is the signing of a peace treaty with neighboring Armenia. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, there are much more nuances of the foreign policy agenda, and the briefing of the Foreign Minister touched upon a number of issues. The main thing is that Baku is successfully solving everything. Bayramov told about it in detail.

"This year, Azerbaijan has pursued an open and pragmatic policy aimed at ensuring the territorial integrity of our country," the Foreign Minister said. According to the Minister, Azerbaijan has paid great attention to the bilateral relations with neighbouring countries, in particular with Türkiye, which is logical and justified - Ankara is our closest friend and ally, and the Shusha Declaration signed by the leaders of the two countries last year is a guarantee of security and cooperation in the South Caucasus. Joint work has been done with Türkiye in all areas emanating from the Shusha Declaration, and new documents have been prepared, Bayramov said.

The facts speak of the political activity of our country in the world arena - in 2022, 69 countries marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan.

The minister said that this year the UN flag was raised for the first time in Shusha. "I believe this is a historic event," Bayramov stressed.

According to him, Azerbaijan's fundamental priorities for 2023 will remain unchanged.

"The priority is to develop cooperation with important partners. Azerbaijan will also continue to be active in multilateral platforms. Sustainable development and peace are top priorities for us. We hope that the opposite side will also focus on peace," Bayramov said.

The minister touched on relations with Armenia and the situation on the Lachin road, where Azerbaijani eco-activists are demanding that the top brass of illegal gangs stop looting the natural resources of the Karabakh region. At the same time, peaceful protests are deliberately inflamed, and the false myth of some kind of 'humanitarian crisis' in Karabakh is being spread. Azerbaijan, as noted by Bayramov, strongly rejects the claims of an alleged "humanitarian crisis" in Karabakh. At the meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia, Jeyhun Bayramov conveyed to Sergey Lavrov the position of the Azerbaijani side on the situation on the Lachin road.

According to him, representatives of Azerbaijani state structures were prevented from monitoring mineral deposits located in the Karabakh Economic Region: "We understand that this is a provocation. In fact, the monitoring effort began long ago. Since these efforts have failed, Azerbaijani eco-activists started an action. It is their unfettered right, and they will exercise it," Bayramov said.

In that regard, he recalled that Russia has proposed to leave the issue of Karabakh's status for future generations, but Azerbaijan considered that proposal unacceptable. It's hard to disagree with him. After all, Baku's position on this issue is clear and unchanged - the Karabakh conflict is over, and no status is envisaged for the Armenian ethnic population living in the Karabakh region.

While Azerbaijan is establishing contacts with the ethnic Armenians of Karabakh, the Azerbaijani side will never have contact with Ruben Vardanyan. This is Azerbaijan's categorical position on the self-styled minister, who is known to have come from Moscow with a specific mission - to plunder Azerbaijan's natural resources and provoke clashes to prevent the reconciliation of the two communities.

Baku has its own strategy on this issue and there is no place in it for any separatist proxies and pseudo-leaders. According to Bayramov, contact with the local population will be continued in the future and the work will be intensified. He reminded of the interesting details of how Azerbaijanis and Armenians have managed to establish communications after the 44-day war. For example, a positive dynamic in relations with the local population was established during the construction of an alternative road, where the wishes of local Armenians were taken into account, as well as in consultations with the local Armenian population on the operation of the Sugovushan reservoir. Here it was also important for Azerbaijan to hear the voices and opinions of ordinary Armenians. The process was successful, but in Bayramov's words, "a man with a tainted past is being sent to the region".

However, the minister stressed that Azerbaijan is ready to stop such provocations. In this context, he pointed out that all the illusions of Armenian separatists and revanchists in this regard will remain illusions.

"The Azerbaijani state has declared at a high level that the ethnic Armenians of Karabakh have the right to live in Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani state is ready to ensure their rights," stressed Jeyhun Bayramov.

Blowing up the myth of a "humanitarian crisis", Yerevan and Paris propagandists lobby the delusional idea of sending some kind of international humanitarian organisations to Azerbaijan's Karabakh. As Bayramov noted, the Azerbaijani state has always been in favour of international organisations coming to the occupied and now liberated territories, but Armenia has blocked this issue.

"Because of Armenia's destructive approach, a UNESCO mission to Karabakh did not take place. For some reason, UNESCO wants a consensus, and with this explanation has not yet visited the region. Although in this case there is no need for that," Bayramov stressed.

The Azerbaijani FM then addressed the destructive trends in Armenian policies, with the attempts to freeze or derail the dialogue between the parties and the process of signing a peace treaty. They are obvious, but there is hope that the misunderstandings can be overcome. There are many unresolved issues, which are at an intermediate stage thanks to Yerevan, such as border delimitation and demarcation, the issue of the Zangazur corridor, and the withdrawal of the remnants of armed formations from the RPC zone of responsibility - the whole list of Yerevan's known obligations under the Trilateral Declaration of November 10, 2020, which have not been realized so far.

"The progress achieved on the peace treaty and border demarcation is minimal. The main reason is the unconstructive and inconsistent position of the Armenian side," Bayramov outlined the problem.

Despite the fact that official Yerevan has stated that there is nothing unacceptable in the five basic principles proposed by Azerbaijan to normalize relations, Armenia is now rejecting the previously reached agreements. Bayramov remarked: "It is a bad tendency. Such steps have a negative impact on the negotiation process".

Referring to the process of signing a peace treaty with Armenia, the Azerbaijani FM lamented that the third round of talks, expected to be held in early December in Moscow, was not held because of the refusal of the Armenian side. He also recalled that three meetings of the border delimitation commission had been held, which had also been deadlocked.

Armenia has other serious debts to Azerbaijan - eight villages are to be returned to Azerbaijan in the delimitation process.

In his view, the mine threat remains a serious problem, while the fact that Azerbaijan has regained control of Lachin, Zabukh, and Sus can be seen as a great success this year.

Despite the deliberate red tape in all processes, Armenia intends to launch another EU mission to the tentative border between the two countries - obviously, with the hope of creating new precedents and provocations and then blaming everything on Azerbaijan. However, Bayramov reminded that the next mission from the EU to Armenia (along the border with Azerbaijan - Ed.) has not yet been agreed upon with Azerbaijan.

At the same time, Azerbaijan continues to work to bring Armenia to justice in international courts - the Armenian side must pay for all its crimes.

Tehran plays a very negative role in the relations between Baku and Yerevan, which is often ready to threaten its neighbours. However, Azerbaijan maintains its composure, our response is symmetrical to Iranian outbursts, and Baku's foreign policy priorities cannot be shaken by Iran's statements.

According to Bayramov, there has been "certain tension" in Azerbaijan-Iran relations lately, but he would not like to over-dramatize the situation. For instance, in spite of everything, the agreements reached in the economic sphere are being implemented.

"Can Azerbaijani-Iranian relations be better in the current situation? Yes. They could be. Azerbaijan was by no means a proponent of aggravating those relations. We had numerous talks with my Iranian counterpart, who also spoke in favour of developing relations. Azerbaijan's position is that the relations should develop within the framework of mutual respect, non-interference in each other's affairs," the Foreign Minister stressed.

However, no matter how brightly the Armenian side describes its relations with Iran, Tehran's real results of cooperation with Baku are noticeably stronger.

"Azerbaijan is a state with an extremely independent policy. In any case, we will promote our national interests," stressed Bayramov, outlining the details of our country's political strategy.

Caliber.Az